A woman who works for the accounting firm we use went to bombay a few months ago to give some kind of standards and practices training. She thought they were kidding when they told her not to go wandering off into the woods because of this.

BTW. If you're an accountant your U.S. Corporate overlords and India are conspiring to foobar your career path too. Just a friendly pointing out of the obvious.

Located on the west coast of India, the group of islands which has grown into the city of Mumbai, was probably first recorded as the home of fisherfolk where a group of Buddhist monks established an outpost late during the Magadhan empire. The islands were tossed from one king to another emperor for two millenia, until the maritime trade empire of the British decided to develop the natural harbour into a city. In the four hundred years since then, the city has grown by a series of land reclamations which now link the original islands into one mass.

The city was called Bombay for much of the last four hundred years. The origin of the name is obscure, but is often said to come from the Portuguese phrase bom bahia meaning "good bay". The name Mumbai has been used in the main local languages for as long, and is ascribed to the local goddess, Mumba (ai means mother in Marathi). The name of the city was changed to Mumbai by an act of the parliament in 1997.

Oh, and people considered Bombay as the name given by foreigners(British people). So, changing it to Mumbai was one of the nationalistic drives in India. They have subsequently renamed several towns and cities named formerly by the British. Calcutta is now Kolkotta etc.

The city of Mumbai originally consisted of seven islands called Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman's Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion. This group of islands has been joined together by a series of reclamations. In 1534 the Portuguese took Mumbai by force of arms from the Mohammedans. This led to the establishment of numerous churches which were constructed in areas where the majority of people were Roman Catholics. Only one church with Portuguese-style facade still remains i.e. St. Andrew's church at Bandra. They named their new possession as "Bom Baia" which in Portuguese means "Good Bay".

Later the islands were given to the English King Charles II in dowry on his marriage to Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza in 1662. In the year 1668 the islands were acquired by the English East India Company on lease from the crown for an annual sum of 10 pounds in gold. The British corrupted the Portuguese name "Bom Baia" to "Bombay".

So it was ACTUALLY renamed Mumbai. Happened to a lot of cities that the EIC renamed including my former home of Pune not Poona....

Never mind. I just got your later post. Seems rather a delayed reaction, don't you think? I thought the British left India sometime right after WW II, and the name change was in 1997, from the information meet us at the stick posted.

Never mind. I just got your later post. Seems rather a delayed reaction, don't you think? I thought the British left India sometime right after WW II, and the name change was in 1997

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well, it was done by a pro-Hindu government in power at that time in Mumbai called the Shiv Sena. They got this idea out of the blue. This political group does wierd things to date , like renouncing Valentine's day parties and western culture. They have renamed Mumbai's Sahar airport to Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Our firm trains overseas as well, i'm familiar with it. Alot of auditing must be done on-site, therefore alot of assurance work cannot go overseas. However, in a global economy, Audit and Assurance "drones" overseas must familiarize themsevles with US GAAP.

Tax has been heading overseas - yes - but again, at a fairly remedial level. The consulting work is still here in the states.

[...]This political group does wierd things to date , like renouncing Valentine's day parties and western culture

lol! i was farkin there when one of those stupid attacks happened! i was taking vacation coaching classes for Financial Accounting, which is one floor above one of the card n gift stores (Archies in Vile Parle if you know the place : p).

prof was blabbering on about some damn Balance Sheet (B/s) bullshiat (hmm...B/S - B.S. : p )..anyhoo.. next thing we know , the girl at the store screams at the top of her lungs and we hear glass being shattered etc etc...

by the time we went down, the numbnuts finished throwing out all the cards , teddys (the bear variety : p )and other assorted commercial-displays-of-love (yes, im cynical about 'luurve'..how did you knw? : ) and then finally set fire to it, and started bellowing some praise to their leader...(a senile bitter murderous buffoon if i have ever seen one...)

man...like what hooker said - wingnuts everywhere!

rizzy

..it gets kinda crowded..yes... : p .It's considered the Indian equivalent of a place that can give you 'the American Dream'...